Scary Take off!

[Heel n Toe]

I'm not a pilot, but the first thing I noticed is that I didn't see much, if any flap. That would seem to be more at the heart of the matter, wouldn't it?

[jeffgrant]

Here's what she said on that other page:

Originally Posted by Her Story

Oh dear... Have to 'fess up. Things do come back to haunt one, don't they? This was me, Selina, in GYYF. Of course I have already received this video a few times in the last couple of days. I think it was 1999 or 2000.

What can I say? It was hot, I had 2 passengers and thought I knew more than I did about short field takeoffs. This little field is just outside of Victoria B.C. and once we were in the air we headed straight to Nanaimo's LONG runway to land and assess damages. The only victims, other than my pride, were the gear fairings as I did a bit of landscaping on the way out.

What was I thinking? I sure didn't use correct short field procedures and quickly ran out of room. I knew I was in trouble and also knew I was committed to the takeoff. As we lifted off my right seat passenger, a more experienced pilot (as was the second passenger in the back), was quick enough to yell at me to push the nose down and was ready to do so himself if I didn't. That instinct to pull up is strong especially with the tops of the trees coming at you.

Just about the best learning experience I've every had... And probably the scariest.

Coincidentally I met the owner of this little field this past weekend at a fly-in and we had a little reminisce about my "incident". The field is still in use although I think they have removed a few more of the trees at the end. I don't think I'll be tackling it again although a little voice inside says perhaps I should go back without passengers and do it properly!

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

I'm not a pilot, but the first thing I noticed is that I didn't see much, if any flap. That would seem to be more at the heart of the matter, wouldn't it?

Not all small airplanes are the same when it comes to use of flaps on takeoff. Some manuals may call for a certain degree of flaps for short or soft field takeoffs...some may not. Applying flaps at the start of a takeoff roll on most airplanes will add drag which will result not reaching takeoff speed as quickly.

In my anemic ground loving little Grumman AA1B I used to own, the manual did not recommend using flaps for takeoff, but I found "my" best techique for getting it into the air on short firm grass strips with clear approaches was to throttle up facing 180 degrees to the takeoff direction.... do a 180 degree turn into the wind.... think "light" thoughts while speed increases .... Once speed gets close to takeoff speed, flip the flap switch to start dropping the electric flaps.... break ground staying in ground effect until speed increases to safe speed.... start gently climbing out while slowly bring flaps back up.

This technique was effective, but with the pitch sensitive short winged underpowered Grumman, one needed to be very precise to avoid getting into a bad situation. Definitely would not be advisable for a Cessna 150/172 pilot to try this when at the controls of a Grumman for the first time.